Sep 25, 2010

"?" with Jarrod Fairclough: Katy Perry Lets it All Hang Out

"?" with Jarrod Fairclough

Because Asking Questions is a Good Way to Find Out Things

AN EMERGENCY MEETING

Hello Muppet fans! Thank you all for coming to this emergency meeting of my segment here on the Mindset, ‘?’. You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I introduced this segment as something that will make people think, something that will deal with the big issues. But instead, I wrote about Oscar the Grouch. Rest assured, I have an official answer for that article complete with answers from a very credible source, but we will get to that next time. Because today I’m actually going to ask an actually important, and highly relevant question.

I like Katy Perry. I’ll admit it. I’m a straight male, and I think she’s darn good. For those who have no idea what has been going on, here's a recap: Katy Perry did a parody of her song “Hot ‘N Cold” with Elmo about Elmo’s ADHD or something like that. Basically Katy and Elmo sang their little song, it was previewed on YouTube on Sesame Street’s official channel, and all was right with the world...

THAT WAS UNTIL A FEW DAYS AGO!

SESAME STREET HAS RIPPED KATY PERRY FROM THEIR YOUTUBE SITE!

About an hour before this happened, I watched the video ON YOUTUBE for the first time. And it was alright. Sure, Katy Perry was a little bit patronizing, but she’s hot, so whatever.

Now APPARENTLY the big problem is with what she’s wearing. It’s a green-yellow dress with a fleshy-meshy thing over her chest that reveals a fair bit of cleavage. It’s been called “inappropriate,” “too risky,” etc. by the public; but I want to make something clear my dear friends: we knew what she would be wearing in this video a long time ago! Oh yeah, did you feel that? Did you feel the ground shake? That was me dropping a bombshell!

The good people over at Muppet Wiki updated Katy’s page a while back with a photo of her with Elmo, presumably from the day she filmed this segment. What did that photo look like???

This:

Hmm... Where have I seen that outfit before?

We had fair warning that Miss Perry would be wearing something slightly revealing on the show. Can you imagine if they asked Lady Gaga on the show? Oh... Think of the puppet head massacre!

Truth be told (and it must be some Katy Perry psychic thing I have) I did think when I saw that photo for the first time, ‘Hmm, she could have covered herself up a little.” But really, what’s the big deal? Let me go through some other revealing moments we’ve had on Sesame Street, shall I?

All naked characters. Including Elmo. Maybe Katy was just trying to fit in?

Episode 4160: Maria in a bathrobe, apparently not wearing much underneath, with Gordon and an Elephant with her...

Episode 4210: Gordon, also in the tub...

Do De Rubber Duck – almost ten characters nude in the bath together

Need I really say more, my friends? Sesame Street is a show about letters, numbers, and the world. And scantily clad celebrities are a part of that world. And God bless them for it!

I won’t be looking for answers for this article as I usually would be, because let’s face it; I can’t get on to Katy Perry. I can see why Sesame took it off the website, but I also think it’s a ridiculous move.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and download a copy of this video so that when the crap does hit the fan and this thing is banned from the internet, people will pay sweet, sweet dough to get a copy of it. It’s going to be on the black market or something! I’ll see you VERY soon with a follow up article to “Why is Oscar always drawn with a lid on his head”, but until then Muppet fans, remember to keep asking questions, because, as Sesame Street always taught us, asking questions is a good way to find out things... And don’t put scantily clad women on kids TV shows...

9 comments:

A lot of fuss over nothing if you ask me (no one did, but I'll take advantage of the comment form). Kids prefer puppets to boobs, I'm almost sure of that. Their focus will be on Elmo, not Katy Perry's fashion choices. More dangerous than low cut tops is the message that the female form is something dirty, something to be ashamed of, something children need protected from.

For me, its not about the female form being dirty, but rather about protecting children later in life, because, face it, wearing provocative clothes like that can be dangerous for a person in, say, a city or a club or somewhere that someone can take advantage of you, and with the over-sexualisation of today's youth (i.e. Madonna's new sexy range for 15-year olds and that Gossip Girl kid wearing next to nothing in her music videos) it could be dangerous to present the idea of wearing revealing clothes as something innocent and not something that should be thought out.

The video was fine. If there was any issue it should have been that the video was not really teaching anything. Sesame street is about learning. It seemed more like they were trying to stretch Katy and the song to fit than teach a lesson.

I haven't been a fan of the Sesame's executives since Jim Henson passed. Maybe it’s time to clean-house or at least get back to their initial mission statement. Things like this segment have given me hope of improvement, but this is the same numbing of the program that began in the 90's. The Workshop should have been better at policing itself and prevented this from happening in the first place. This knee-jerk reaction is disappointing and unprofessional. I do hope Perry returns for another shoot next season. Sesame Street is a teaching tool first, but I believe more was being taught in the 70's and 80's when we saw a lot more characters having a lot more unfettered fun.

Jim was just a performer by the '80's as he was busy with his own projects. Personally, I think they need someone as good as Jon Stone to help the show. The direction has been unorganized since he left.

My opinion of this has nothing to do with Katy Perry's cleavage (though I disapproved of that as well), but more that she's nothing but a fake.

She can't sing live, she requires lots of money and props in order for her to do her thing (and I'm very disappointed in Sesame Workshop for wasting valuable money on her when it could've been used for something actually educational), and she's a total jerk as well.

Everything about her is fake and I'm very disappointed in myself for even having in her to begin with.